It had formerly been a kind of
manor-house, though altogether unlike any other manor-house I ever saw; for
after exercising all my constructive ingenuity reversed in pulling it to
pieces in my mind, I came to the conclusion that the germ-cell of it was
a cottage of the simplest sort which had grown by the addition of other
cells, till it had reached the development in which we found it.
I have said that the dining-room was almost on the level of the shore.
Certainly some of the flat stones that coped the low wall in front of
it were thrown into the garden before the next winter by the waves. But
Connie's room looked out on a little flower-garden almost on the downs,
only sheltered a little by the rise of a short grassy slope above it. This,
however, left the prospect, from her window down the bay and out to sea,
almost open. To reach this room I had now to go up but one simple cottage
stair; for the door of the house entered on the first floor, that is, as
regards the building, midway between heaven and earth. It had a large
bay-window; and in this window Connie was lying on her couch, with the
lower sash wide open, through which the breeze entered, smelling of
sea-weed tempered with sweet grasses and the wall-flowers and stocks that
were in the little plot under it.
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